In a message dated 1/15/2006 9:20:48 PM Mountain Standard Time, akibb1@verizon.net writes: The booklet contains Church names of available church registers. Felix Gundacker's book of parish records for all of Bohemia is a finished and complete record. It is available at his website -- http://www.ihff.at/ There are also a number of other publications by Felix listed at the website, all of which are very good basic resources. German list is at: http://www.ihff.at/indexstart.htm English list is at: http://www.ihff.at/indexstarte.htm The topography of Bohemia by J G Sommer is a 16-volume set of books -- one fore each Kreis in Bohemia prior to 1848. I first discovered these books about 1994 and have used the volume for Pilsner Kreis quite often. The original books were in Gothic German typeface. I do not know if Felix G. has transcribed them to Roman typeface which may be easier to read for some. The books contain a history of the ownership of each noble estate (Herrschaft) before 1848 -- giving the names of various noble famiies whose own archives may include data about one's ancestors. It also lists all of the places included in each estate and the parish to which each one belonged. The number of houses and population numbers are given and the language(s) spoken are named. The general description of the Herrschaft also tells what "industry" there was or what the various means of earning a living were. I think the books are a bargain at EU 35 each. 1 Leitmeritz 3-902318-00-7 2 Bunzlau 3-902318-01-5 3 Bidschow 3-902318-02-3 4 Königgrätz 3-902318-03-1 5 Chrudim 3-902318-04-X 6 Pilsen 3-902318-05-8 7 Klattau 3-902318-06-6 8 Prachin 3-902318-07-4 9 Budweis 3-902318-08-2 10 Tabor 3-902318-09-0 11 Caslav 3-902318-10-4 12 Kaurim 3-902318-11-2 13 Rakonitz 3-902318-12-0 14 Saaz 3-902318-13-9 15 Elbogen 3-902318-14-7 16 Beraun 3-902318-15-5 17 Index for all books 3-902318-16-3 http://www.ihff.at/indexstarte.htm at the same site lets you search for place names in an on-line Gazetteer. There is another option for a list of parish records available for a given place. http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/SUD/kb/index.html If you search for that URL using Google you will have the option to [translate this page] in the hit list. Click on that option and the page should come up in a readable English. You have to know the location of an ancestral parish church to use this site. Click on the name of the place with the church for a list of records available for that place. If you do not know the name of the place with the church and the ancestral birthplace is not in the list, use the other resources listed above to locate the parish. Then go to that place on the list and check to see if the ancestral birthplace is listed with the other places included in the parish. Karen

On Mon, 16 Jan 2006, KarenHob@aol.com wrote: > > The topography of Bohemia by J G Sommer is a 16-volume set of books -- > one fore each Kreis in Bohemia prior to 1848. I first discovered > these books about 1994 and have used the volume for Pilsner Kreis > quite often. Portions of vol. 15 (Elbogner Kreis, published 1847) of the Sommer series are translated into English on my website: http://home.xnet.com/~ugeiser/Genealogy/Bohemia/contents.html At the bottom of the table of contents are the links to the place index, containing German and Czech names, size, dominion (Herrschaft), parish, and page number. The index is broken into 4 pages (A-G, H-L, M-Sc, Sd-Z) for compactness and sorted alphabetically by German name (use the browser's Find function to search by the other entries). The translated parts include the General Overview and the dominions: Elbogen (city and dominion), Oberchodau, Falkenau, Maria Kulm, Schoenbach, Joachimsthal (city and "forest" dominion), Karlsbad, Eger (city with dominion, royal castle dominion, St. Clara, Knights of Holy Cross), Stein, Kinsberg, Pograth, and Asch. There is a small chance that I'll add some more, but I'm basically done with those parts that I (or better, my wife who doesn't read much German) have need for. This is purely a hobby effort. Some other sections from this or other volumes have been transcribed in German to the web. Urs Geiser (ugeiser AT xnet.com) Woodridge (DuPage Co.), IL, USA